I'm planning a potential trip to costa rica and was wondering if anyone has any experience with this country. I'm pretty much starting from scratch and have no idea about cheap airfares, interesting destinations, etc.

Hi there! You might first start with doing a search using www.Google.com using "COSTA RICA" (with quotation marks) as your keywords and you should get MORE than enough information. Good luck and have fun!

Saludos, MadridMan

You can ask questions at the Costa Rica Message Board ( www.discoverypress.com - wwwboard). (Sorry, it's not nearly as good as MadridMan's site.) Or you can e-mail me. I've been there several times in the last two years.

[ 04-22-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

Costa Rica is beautiful! I spent time on the guanacaste peninsula (specifically Tamirindo) Great surfing, restaraunts, clubs, seafood, rainforests, people. The roads are horrible though - be sure to rent a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Dusty too if you go in dry season.

Jasonbrooks72--Have you visited Tamarindo in early February? Just how dusty is it?? We've been there twice in the "green" season (June and August) and twice in December. They apparently coat the roads with sugar cane juice to keep the dust down. Our next trip is scheduled for February. Will it be overwhelmingly chokingly dusty? Is it still green? I'd hate to have our group of eleven (most have never been there) think that we've taken a wrong turn and landed in the Sahara!

I spent some time in Costa Rica back in '98. I stayed with a family there in a small town. My advice is just about any rainforest - they're all spectacular. Also check out the volcanoes like Poas and Arenal (I saw another called Irazu that wasn't too shabby either). My advice is don't really bother w/ San Jose, just a big smelly metropolis w/ not a whole lot there. If you have any questions about the Cartago area, just lemme know.